Campus-Based Utility-scale Wind Turbine

Boston, Massachusetts [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Plans for construction of a utility-scale wind turbine at a community college on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod are underway.

R. W. Beck, in partnership with Global Energy Concepts (GEC), has completed a site-screening study and a draft follow-up feasibility study addressing implementation of wind turbine energy generation at the Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable, Massachusetts for the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) Community Wind program. The proposed plan calls for wind energy generation at the college by early 2005, if all goes according to plan. If the conditions at the campus are favorable for wind power the goal is to install a single wind turbine generator of approximately 1.5 MW in size. This is one utility-scale size wind turbine. “This project represents a great opportunity to provide Owner’s Engineering services for the MTC for a wind energy development project, and the college campus provides a viable development site for wind energy,” said R. W. Beck Project Manager Paul Cleri. The project follows in the footsteps of the nearby town of Hull, Massachusetts which installed a 660 kW utility-scale wind turbine a few years ago and has since been a source of pride and clean electricity for area residents. The purpose of the R. W. Beck/GEC site screening study was to perform a preliminary evaluation of issues that may affect the ability to install the proposed WTG on campus. The study concluded that such a project was feasible, and that a wind turbine could be electrically interconnected to the campus’s electrical distribution system to export power to the regional utility grid, as well as to supply the college’s needs. It also provided a conceptual design of the proposed WTG plant, developed project economics, and identified the necessary steps — including permitting and interconnect approvals — to go forward with project development.